Sunday, August 31, 2008

Eggie Does It, Monsieur Hermé!

Well what a delight to have such a sweet gal hosting this month.. a long-time fellow blogger and someone I like to call my friend, Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey? and her equally delightful co-host, Tony of Olive Juice brought to us Daring Baker type people a recipe from the sugar daddy of all sugar daddies, Pierre Hermé!

Meeta and Tony chose Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé from the book Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé, written by one of my all-time favorite bakers, Dorie Greenspan. To say that the crowd was excited upon hearing what our challenge for August was, is definitely an understatement.

This was a fun month to watch comments on the Daring Baker forums. Many of us had problems with our éclairs deflating and there was much excellent advice on how to prevent that from happening.. advice, I happily admit, that steered me in the right direction as my éclair shells puffed beautifully with only 4 deflated shells out of 28. I went the mini route this time since I prefer éclairs small.. they are just one of those desserts that are too much for me if given a large one. I KNOW! Can you believe there is a dessert out there that's just too much for me? :P

We had the choice of making them as they were originally intended.. chocolate pastry cream filled with a chocolate glaze on top.. or we could switch one of those components to something else, as long as we kept the other. Another shocker for me, I decided to stick with the chocolate glaze and go with a lemon pastry cream for the filling. A little zest and a little lemon juice in place of the vanilla did me just fine and before I knew it, I had one of the best pastry creams I've ever tasted! ;)

I made 1/2 the way we were required.. by slicing each shell in half, filling one side with the pastry cream and topping with the other half of the shell then glazing with the chocolate goodness. The rest I decided to just fill by puncturing an end with a pastry tip and loading them up with luscious lemony pastry cream. I also decided that at the end, with just a few left and some fantastic toffee sauce in my freezer waiting to be used.. that I'd glaze those with the toffee sauce and then drizzle a little milk chocolate over. DELISH!

The only complaint I had with this recipe was that the shells were very eggy. I took the advice of many and beat the living shite out of my choux after each egg addition (5 - FIVE - eggs) and I allowed my shells to bake a little longer than what was called for, then opened the oven door and pulled the shelf out half way so that they still had some warmth to dry properly. So the only thing I can say here is that I don't really believe that many of us had eggy éclairs due to not beating long enough or baking long enough.. I just think that there were maybe 1 to 2 eggs not needed. But, who the hell am I to disagree with the pastry king of France? Now, of course, I'd KILL - yes! KILL! to try one of his éclairs.. my guess is that you'd never know there was an egg in the recipe. :)

Would I make this recipe again? No. I have another éclair recipe that I made last summer and it was not eggy at all.. they all deflated of course, but that was before I knew to bake them a tad longer and not to take them away from the heat completely until they've had time to dry. At least this is what I'm contributing my success to puffy shells this time. Would I make ANY éclair again? Probably, but not very often.. yes, I'm a dork and I actually prefer the donut type - you know, the kind that are called "cream sticks" *gasp* Was that blasphemy??? Sorry Monsieur Hermé! ;)

Nevertheless, I learned some great lessons this month on how to keep my choux nice and puffy and how to make a delicious pastry cream that I WILL use over and over again. ;)

Thanks so much Meeta and Tony!!! You have both done a stellar job this month and we appreciate it so very muchly! :) Ya'll can find the recipe on both Meeta's and Tony's blogs.

gorgeous, Lis! That last picture has me drooling for some eclairs, but that´s not gonna happen anytime soon, enough dish-washing fun for me for a while.And my first batch of puffs did deflate a bit, but I blame that on a not-hot-enough oven and not taking the time to read the DB forum. For instance, I had no idea about the fork thing on top to make them rise better... live and learn, my friend :)Oh and your nice says hi... well, not technically, but she wagged her tail while looking at your eclair pics, so I take that as a "hi, auntie Lisa, would you care to give me some chocolate covered goodness?"

Those are some nice looking eclairs, Lis. And they're not posers like mine! I beat the hell outta mine, too, and yep they sat in the oven to cool after I left them, and left them, and left them...but it's my fault for not listening to the trial and error tales in the forum. That's what I get. Okay, so send me over some of those beauties. You saved one, right?

See, you are obviously a founding member of the DBers, knowing that it takes a community to bake a cake (or pastry). I didn't have time to read all the forum posts so went on to have eggy, flat pastries. Quelle Surprise. Love the flavors you've added to yours.

toffe sauce! i knew you would come up with something that would have me drooling and since i have not had lunch my tummy has never grumbled with me so much as it is now. it was a fun challenge and you know i was nervous about how this would come down. i literally breathed a sigh of relief and all the cheers in the forum! thannx to you and my cream puff for making me join the group. better go before i get all sentimental and make these eclairs soggy!

Well, since I didn't make them(but have made them before with another recipe) in a way I am glad to know these are eggy and you wont be making them again. But those did turn out excellent. These are one of the few desserts I like small as well.P.S. How is that wedding planning coming?

Wow - amazing. I've been thinking of taking on the challenge, but haven't worked up the courage yet. I'm pretty new to blogging and just love your blog (you are very funny!)and so I gave you an award. (you can go to my blog to get it).

Mmmm ... lemon pastry cream. Sounds so good. I wasn't totally thrilled with these but they weren't bad either. I mean if you had some waiting for me when I get in for your wedding it's not like I wouldn't eat them or anything.